


Isn't It Wonderful?

by Methoxyethane



Category: Final Fantasy X, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Final Fantasy X AU, Keith is the Summoner, Lance as a Guardian, M/M, You know what scene this is, beware of angst, so you shouldn't need to have played the game to understand, the author provides as much context as possible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-09 07:15:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12882831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: Keith finds himself shaken after the events in Bevelle, his resolve to cleanse the world of Sin wavering in the face of doubt. Fortunately, he isn't alone.





	1. Chapter 1

He had failed. All of that work, all of that pomp and ceremony, getting his friends arrested and all of them labeled as traitors to Yevon, and Keith still hadn’t been able to send Lotor to the Farplane. He wasn’t sure what kind of Yevon-cursed fiend Lotor had turned himself into by the end, but whatever end they had managed to grant him was not a peaceful one.

What would happen to them, once Keith performed the Final Summon? Would his friends still be traitors on the run from the church, or would Keith’s sacrifice be enough to restore their names and let them… live in peace. Without him.

Hell, this was so absurd. Keith had already decided, hadn’t he? What on Spira was he getting second thoughts for NOW? Years of resolve shaken, his faith in his own religion shattered with the knowledge of the church’s corruption, but… No matter if he was doing it in the name of Yu Yevon or not, Keith’s duty and intention was for the people of Spira. Nothing should have changed. And yet…

When Keith heard the footsteps behind him on the shore, he didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. He had asked for some time alone after all, only one person would see that as an invitation to make sure Keith was doing alright. There was no danger in his presence though, so Keith didn’t bother to turn around to look at him, and made no move to step out of the waist-deep water of Lake Macalania. Just kept his gaze steady on the sky above the break in trees where crystalline shards of memories floated into the sky like glitter falling upwards; the dreams that spheres were made of. Pyreflies were a common enough sight around Spira but Macalania alone was the source of spheres, the only place this bizarre light show could be appreciated from, and Keith wasn’t yet eager to give up the sight.

Not when looking away meant he’d have to look Lance in the eye. Keith… wasn’t ready for that yet.

Lance’s footsteps stopped at the edge of the water, where he let a rare silence rest between them. It should have been what Keith wanted, but Lance had been a constant source of cheerful nonsense since the moment they’d found him floating in the ocean and his sudden cease in distracting banter was more stifling than relaxing.

After they let the quiet go on too long, Keith couldn’t stand the knot of tension in his chest anymore. “I thought it would be easier,” he admitted before he knew the words were coming, voice more calm than even he himself has expected. “I wasn’t doing it alone. I had Allura and Hunk by my side, and then I had Pidge and you and even Shiro all join us as my guardians. Most summoners only have one or two, so I felt so blessed to have so many people I cared about by my side…”

He let his eyes close, the knot of tension in his chest only tightening instead of letting loose as he spoke. “Even though I knew this was a journey so difficult hundreds of summoners have lost their lives in the name of that small sliver of hope, somehow… I still didn’t think it would be this _hard_.” He let a sigh slowly drop the tense line of his shoulders, Keith wished the water were colder. It wasn’t very distracting as it was. “Travelling all over Spira has meant seeing the pain and destruction Sin has caused, all of the lies and hypocrisy the church is controlling our people with, and everywhere so much _death_. There’s something about it all that makes this journey feel so… insignificant. Or maybe just futile.”

A few more heartbeats of quiet, until Keith dropped his voice so low even he himself could barely hear it. “I’ve been trying so _hard_.”

The water moved behind him, rippling out towards Keith in waves as Lance stepped into the water and waded up to Keith. “Maybe,” he started, voice somehow confident and completely clueless at the same time in that way only Lance could pull off. “You’ve been trying _too_ hard.”

He stopped when he was still a few paces away from Keith, an unusually respectful amount of space between them for the usually tactile guardian. A distance that was explained when, low and serious and remorseful, Lance admitted, “They… the others told me everything.”

Keith’s heart seized in his chest, a deep breath of air sucked in through his lungs like a punch to the gut. He turned around at last, meeting Lance’s unsmiling eyes. “Everything?”

Everything, of course, was impossible since the information Lance was missing encompassed all of modern Spira in favor of memories of a place that hadn’t existed for ten thousand years. But as they journey together Lance had been filled in with all of the information about Sin and the summoner’s duty to cleanse the world of his wrath, except…

Except no had had the heart to to tell him about the Final Summon. No one had ever mentioned or acknowledged the fact that in return for peace, Keith would die.

Lance didn’t answer with words, just held Keith’s gaze until the young summoner couldn’t bear to anymore and turned his head to stare instead into the giant glowing spheres embedded in Macalania’s titanic trees. “So you know, then.”

Lance didn’t let Keith try to detach himself from him for long. “ _I’m sorry_ ,” he apologized, his voice was thick was pain and regret that had Keith turning back around to face him again. “It’s just… all those _things_ I said. Like, “Let’s go get Sin!, and about taking you to Zanarkand, and all the things we should do after… I didn’t know anything.”

He lost his words after that, only managing to fumble around for a pained. “I guess… I just hope I didn’t make you sad.”

Keith offered him a smile, small but also somehow genuine. “It didn’t,” he answered honestly. Because the thing was, no matter how arduous and utterly soul-crushingly depressing Keith’s path was, Lance’s goofy smile and earnest cheer made experiencing the wonders of Spira _fun_ where Keith would have been too blind from his goal to enjoy them. “It actually made me really happy.”

Lance seemed stunned at that, which Keith could understand. From his point of view it looked like he had been pointing out all of the things Keith wouldn’t be able to do when he was gone, but… But the way he said those things you knew he meant it, like while he may only be here because sir Shiro was the only soul on the planet he knew, what Lance wanted was nothing more than to be with _Keith_. To bring him back to Luca and the Moonflow and to take the time and enjoy all of the places they had had to hurry through or had tragedy befall them in, to bring him back to show Keith his homeland and finally force him to learn blitzball with he and Hunk. Lance was honest and he liked Keith for Keith and not because he was the son of someone great or because he was a summoner who carried the burden of the Calm, and he made Keith want to dream of all of the places they could never go and things they could never do.

When too much time passed, Lance predictably started to get too fidgety to hold the serious moment and dove under the waters, indulging in a few long seconds of swimming before emerging in deeper waters towards the center of the lake. He didn’t bother turning to Keith still, instead leaning back to float on his back with his shoulders casually behind his head as he kick-paddled past.

“You should just quit,” he announced, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Keith couldn’t even register a proper reaction, too confused by very suggestion at its core. “Quit my pilgrimage?”

Lance popped back up to swim towards him, treading water as easy as someone who’s second home was underwater. “Sure, just blow off the whole thing. Forget about Sin, forget about going to Zanarkand and being a summoner - all of it.” He set off on a kick, gliding to circle around Keith and force him to turn around in the water to follow him. “There are like, three other summoners that we know of right now, right? No one says it HAS to be you just because you technically have the ability. Like… just fuck all of ‘em.”

He startled a laugh out of Keith. “Fuck saving the world, huh?”

“Yup,” Lance said with renewed vigor, like he’d just thought of the best idea anyone had ever had. “Just run away and live a normal life. You’ve carried Spira’s burden long enough, you know?”

“Maybe I will,” Keith sighed, still smiling. “Wouldn’t that shock the hell out of everyone?”

Lance didn’t even look surprised that Keith was going along with it. Just grinned, waving it off with, “Pidge would be on board right away, you know how the Al Bhed feel. And Hunk and Allura would come around soon too, they love you.”

“Shiro will be a harder sell.”

“You don’t even worry about that,” Lance assured. “I can talk him into it. It’s the least I can do, since I’m the one trying to steal you away from your pilgrimage.”

Keith shook his head. “No, I have to be the one to tell him. After all of this, I owe it to him.”

Shiro, who had been his mother’s guardian when she incited the last calm. Shiro, whom Keith was by now almost certain already dead and only lingering as an unsent because of Keith himself. And perhaps for Lance.

Keith tread deeper into the water, letting it take his weight until he was floating. He tipped back to lay on the water himself now, staring up at the crescent moon where it was half-obscured by shining blue auroras. “I wonder what I’d do… If I really did quit.”

It was, somehow, a thought he’d never actually entertained before. All his life Keith had been set on this path, all his life he’d been prepared to sacrifice himself for the people of Spira, the idea of actually living himself was so foreign he could barely imagine it. Would he live at home in Besaid? Would he get a real job? Would he be able to get married, like his mother did?

Keith was torn out of the train of thought by Lance’s voice, a sudden burst of “Zanarkand!” That sounded a little more desperate than eager. “I mean - not your dead one on Spira, my Zanarkand!”

When Keith didn’t acknowledge the idea after a second and a half, Lance continued. “We can all go, we’ll take everyone! We’ll fly there in the airship, and - and when we get there I’ll throw a big party at my place!”

The tone of his voice was half panicked, like perhaps he was trying to keep Keith’s attention on the idea of quitting as long as he could. Somehow, it made Keith want to play along even more, and he sat up out of his backstroke to offer, “We could finally see that blitzball team of yours in action, and if those Zanarkand Abes are everything you keep boasting about.”

“Of course we are!” Lance defended sharply, before adding on with a grin, “And then after the game me and Hunk can finally get you in the water with us to play a match yourself.”

Keith laughed again, his enthusiasm infectious. “And what about after the game? Blitzball matches were all played at night with the stadium all light up with machina, right? Does the rest of the city stay up late, too?”

“Oh god, yeah!” Lance smiled eagerly. “Zanarkand never sleeps!”

There was another moment of silence, long enough for the spell to very nearly be broken and reality to impede on their fun. Lance was the one looking up at the moon now, going on in a more wistful manner. “Let’s go to the sea, right before sunrise. The city lights all go out one by one, and the stars fade out. Then when everything is so dark from one end of the sky to the other, the horizon splits open with red. It makes everything kind of rose-colored, you know? It starts at the sea, and then spreads to the sky, and all over the city and getting brighter and brighter until it looks like the whole world is glowing…”

The description was so vivid, that along with the glimpses Lotor had showed them of the past while they were in Guadosalam Keith could form a perfect mental image. He could see the city, he could see the sun rising over it. He could see the beach the two of them would be sitting on, could imagine sitting so close to Lance they could share body heat while they watched the sun rise together. And they’d watch the city light up, and they’d think about all of the things ahead of them in the day that they could do, all of the adventures to be had and little things to do with their time, nothing to worry about other than what to fill their day with.

“It’s… really pretty,” Lance said a bit sadly, still looking up at the sky.  “I know you’d like it.”

Keith knew he would like it too.

Which is why… which is why it hurt so much that he would never be able to see it.

Not just that Lance’s Zanarkand obviously didn’t exist anymore, not just that there was no city to go to. But because even when Keith tried to imagine living in Spira, tried to picture a normal life with no worries or responsibilities or burdens of the public’s expectations…

He couldn’t imagine one where he’d be happy. Because he’d never be able to let go of what he was supposed to do, and he’d never stop feeling guilty for choosing his own life over thousands and thousands of others.

The fantasy had been nice to indulge in, as it always was, but when reality came back it came back hard. Keith’s smile dropped and his chest went tight again, eyes stinging and breath caught in his suddenly too-small lungs and… All of the pain was suddenly back all at once in a flood, hitting Keith so hard it dragged him down with excess gravity like it wanted him to sink into the water and drown. The pain of knowing he was going to die when he finally wanted to live so badly… Because Lance MADE him want to live...

It was only when Lance turned around to face him again that Keith realized the dampness in his eyes was not lake water but his own tears, which had started to slide silently down his face to hit the surface of the lake. Once he noticed them he couldn’t stop them anymore, and for the first time in his entire life Keith allowed himself to cry over his own fate.

“I… _I can’t do it,_ ” Keith said, his voice quiet and broken up by small hiccuping sobs. “I can’t give up… I can’t go.”

He let Lance pull him close, let him comfort Keith in his despair. And then, instead of letting him cry it out and stew in it, Lance smiled at Keith. A gentle, genuine smile as he wiped away at the tears staining Keith’s face, and when Keith finally looked up to meet his eyes again Lance leaned in to seal the distance between them.

For the first few seconds Keith was caught up by the thought that this was a very strange time for his first kiss. But somehow in his overemotional state it was easy to sink into, closing his eyes and parting his lips for Lance to take and letting the rest of the world and all his problems melt away with the contact. He didn’t know how, but even at Keith’s absolute worst Lance somehow made it seem like everything might just be okay, and even if it wasn’t as long as this moment was perfect nothing in the future really mattered.

Lance pulled his body close in an embrace, and then pulled them both down into the water. Keith allowed it all, continuing to seek Lance’s mouth in their kiss for as long as he could stay attached to him, wishing they could stay this close forever.

The glassy shards of pyre floated around their entwined bodies in glistening streams cutting through the water, the lights from the aurora above and the flow of Macalania’s magic form below casting the entire underwater in sparkling blues. So when he finally opened his eyes again Keith could see Lance in perfect clarity when other waters would have been black with night, could see Lance smiling at him, could watch as he brought up a gentle hand to brush a floating strand of black hair out of Keith’s eyes. And Keith smiled back, heart miraculously more at ease than it had been since before Guadosalam and the bizarre proposal from Lotor that had spiralled their lives out of control.

Keith flung himself into Lance’s arms, didn’t even dive in for a kiss. Just let Lance pull him in and entwine their fingers together as they floating below the surface of the water, a private oasis with no one to see Keith’s long moment in willing vulnerability.

When they eventually got out of the water, Keith tried to make Lance promise him he’d stay by his side until the end. Instead, Lance promised to be there _always_.

Somehow, Keith realized at that moment, Lance still intended to see to it that Keith lived. Even though Keith knew it was impossible with his renewed resolve to defeat Sin, somehow Keith almost believed he could really do it. That they’d find a way to rid the world of Sin permanently instead of just for a short decade, and that Keith would live through it to spend the rest of the time thereafter with Lance.

\--

 

Binge-written in one sitting and then STILL unedited because I'm a trainwreck of a person. Feel free to visit my writing/art blog [thesmutwitch](http://thesmutwitch.tumblr.com/), and if you aren't familiar with Final Fantasy 10[ This Scene](http://thesmutwitch.tumblr.com/post/168079729595/final-fantasy-x-suteki-da-ne-tidus-yuna) is the one I rewrote here and uhhhh is still kind of a visual masterpiece lol


	2. Post X-2

  


“Allright, now the ball is weighted to keep it down in the water with us, so when I toss it to you here remember that it’s heavier than it looks,” Lance warned, tossing the blitzball  in the air catching it with one idle hand. Lance didn’t even notice he was doing it to be honest - after having been raised by a pro blizter, the ball was so ingrained into his being he could spend a whole day bouncing one on his head with no effort.

Keith scowled at him, offering a quick roll of his mismatched eyes. “I grew up on an island where literally all anyone had to do was play blitzball, Lance. I’ve held one of the fucking balls before.”

“Hey, I couldn’t take any risks!” Lance grinned. “You told me yourself you only got up to holding your breath for three minutes while I was…” Lance was forced to pause, the actual state of his existence there having been slightly debatable. “...Gone for the last two years, CLEARLY I couldn’t count on you to know about the game.”

“You and Hunk are BOTH professionals,” Keith huffed. He put his hand on his hip, an excuse for Lance to indulge in a look at his long legs in those short-shorts. “My life has been SURROUNDED by blitzball! I KNOW the game!”

“Really? What are the rules?”

 _"Just throw me the fucking ball!_ ”

Lance gleefully complied, tossing it underhanded towards an impatient Keith. Who, delightfully, wailed in surprise when the ball hit his ankle on an attempted kick and ended up launching it with innapropriate force into the air over Lance’s head.

It was no trouble for Lance to catch it with a small jump, laughing good-naturedly at the former summoner. “And THAT is why you’re not allowed to practice in water yet. We move off dry land you’ll lose the ball in a second.”

He tossed the ball to Keith again, who this time caught it easily with one hand - admittedly, not a feat most amateurs could pull off yet. “I can throw a knife into a fiend’s FACE at ten yards I think I can aim your damned ball.”

His overconfidence was, quite generally, adorable. Especially since Pidge had already told Lance about how terrible Keith had been at aiming when he’d used Acxa’s gunner sphere while the three of them had been off… Adventuring? Odd-jobbing it? Gullwing-ing? Either way, Keith may be an expert with his pretty ceremonial summoning dagger but playing blitzball was not even close to the same thing as knife-fighting. Lance would know. He too, had been forced into learning both.

“Okay then, let’s see what you’ve got.” Lance widened his stance on the ground, lifting his hands at the ready. “Pass it to me, pretend someone’s blocking you from the front and drop-kick it to me.”

A look of determination set into Keith’s pretty features, and he gave the ball a toss into the air - a perfect arc dropping right in front of him. His kick however, ended up with too much spin on it, and instead of kicking it to Lance he launched it straight to the left to fly off into the ocean.

Keith’s face dropped, and Lance couldn’t hold back his laughter. “Oh, fuck off,” Keith offered with only minor irritation, cheeks red with embarrassment as he stormed off towards the water to fetch the ball.

Lance didn’t let him get far, unable to resist the allure of Keith’s elegant sashay, still ingrained into him from years of training as a summoner; perhaps impossible to unlearn even with public eyes off him.

A reward all in itself, but even better was when the indignation only lasted a second and Keith ended up laughing, looping his own arms up around Lance’s neck to drag his face down into the water. Lance only minded the impromptu dunk because it impeded the sound of Keith’s continued laughing, a sweet and earnest rasp that Lance had waited years and eons to be able to finally hear freely like this.

He used his grip to roll himself up out of the water and flip them so Keith was splayed across his lap, their bodies still wading in Besaid’s ocean while they sat up just far enough out of the water to kiss.

The ball floated away, unnoticed and forever unretrieved.


End file.
